Re: Newbie question: ultra fast count(*)

On 11/25/05, Rodrigo Madera <rodrigo(dot)madera(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> I have been reading all this technical talk about costs and such that
> I don't (_yet_) understand.
>
> Now I'm scared... what's the fastest way to do an equivalent of
> count(*) on a table to know how many items it has?
>
> Thanks,
> Rodrigo
>

you really *need* this?

you can do
SELECT reltuples FROM pg_class WHERE relname = 'your_table_name';

but this will give you an estimate... if you want real values you can
make a TRIGGER that maintain a counter in another table

--
regards,
Jaime Casanova
(DBA: DataBase Aniquilator ;)